LGood morning, Friday. Pop Base tried to sell us a Halloween story that wasn't true.
CBefore coffee? Okay, what's the story?
LThey posted that Lily Allen dressed as a Ticketmaster seat map, complete with a blue dot fever joke.
CExcept she didn't. Her actual costume was Madeline, from the children's books.
LMadeline? The little French girl in the yellow coat?
CExactly. The viral Ticketmaster seat map was a separate couple's costume.
LSo Pop Base mixed up two different costumes and called it news?
CThey saw blue dot fever and ran with it. Lily wasn't wearing it.
LThe couple's costume was about the Oasis queue, not Lily Allen at all.
CRight, and an easy mix-up to make.
LStill, a fact-check before posting would've been nice.
COne reply called it intellectual design. I'd call it a correction.
LSpeaking of things you can't always believe on the internet...
LComplex posted a photo from Manaus, Brazil that's got people staring.
CGo on.
LTwo jaguars swimming side by side through the flooded Amazon. One black, one spotted.
CSounds like the cover of a nature documentary.
LThat's the thing. The claim is a photographer froze this rare moment, but there's no name attached.
CI checked. No source, no photographer, no agency. Just a pretty picture.
LCould still be real. Melanistic jaguars do exist, and they swim.
CThey do. And the Amazon floods every year, so it's plausible.
LBut until someone verifies it, it's just an unconfirmed photo.
CRight.
LI'll allow it on my vision board.
CAs long as you don't share it as fact.
CDifferent world entirely: Variety has a piece on exiled filmmakers and the Oscars.
CMohammad Rasoulof and Shahrbanoo Sadat oppose a separate Oscar category for exiled filmmakers.
LCate Blanchett's displacement film fund is in Tokyo, and this debate is growing.
CI think a separate category is a mistake. These are filmmakers, period.
LBut they can't make movies at home. A separate category could give them visibility.
CVisibility? The Oscars already lump international films into one category. Adding 'exile' just others them more.
LSo you'd rather they compete against everyone, even if their films can't screen at home?
CIf a film is good enough, it should be judged the same. Exile is a circumstance, not a genre.
LBut the Academy added Best International Feature because of circumstances too. It's about access.
CThat's different. International Feature is about language and country of origin, not displacement.
LOkay, maybe you're right that separate 'exile' is too narrow.
CSo fund them, but don't segregate the award.
LFair point. Blanchett's fund is separate from the Academy anyway.
CStill, it's a conversation worth having as more filmmakers are displaced.
LAnd one person on X summed up your Thursday night.
LAnjali Gupta posted: Brain said sleep early, Netflix said season finale. Now they're in court.
CThat's the real Friday battle.
LThe brain never wins against a season finale.
CNever.
LCourt is still in session.